Premature Irradiation: STALKER Lost Alpha

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Lost Alpha is an ambitious mod for Shadow of Chernobyl that aims to recreate all the content that was cut from the game between alpha and release. New (old) areas and new (old) mutants are the main additions, with the bulk of the mod being recreations of the cut locations. The team are aiming to stick as close to the original versions of the cut content as they can based on known info and it’s all looking mighty impressive. After a long time in development, release is closer than ever, which has of course been true every minute since it was first announced. We should have a date in February. In the meantime, here’s a trailer and a FAQ.

Even mod trailers have grufty voiceover men now. I shall consider hiring one to announce my arrival at social events.

As for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I’ve been considering a new mod loadout at some point and if this turns out to be less than a couple of months away I might end up waiting for it instead.

Agree. STALKER did sound like something else before release, much of what it promised it delivered, what didn’t make into the final game got released in mods, Lost Alpha promises to bring THE STALKER I had been waiting for.

Myself, I am waiting for the new edition of the L.U.R.K. mod. Unlike most mods, which use a bit of a kitchen sink or fix what was broken mod. LURK plays as if GSC had gotten themselves a different gameplay designer, which I like. The next verison is going to extent that to loot as well, which I like even more. And, it will introduce Artifact Hunting in SoC…

There’s a new LURK? Fantastic, that and AMK were the only mods I got on with. All the others seemed a bit soft. I used to just play these mods and never really bothered finishing the game, just had a good time wandering around getting loot and trying to survive. Me and my trusty AK74SU.

I purchased both Oblivion and Stalker several years – not months, but years – after their initial releases. The graphics were slightly dated. AI was not quite up to modern standards. Both games, while great for various reasons, left enough to be desired in 2009 and 2011, respectively, that purchasing them probably would raise some eye brows. So why did I do it?
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One word: Mods.
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Any developer who fails to understand the manner in which mods can extend both the appeal, and thus the “shelf life” of a game, needs to take a harder look at the modding scene. Would new purchases of Stalker still take place in 2011 without mods to update AI and graphics? Likely not. Would Skyrim and Fallout inspire the sort of fanatical fan base they do on PC without the ability to take hold of the tool sets and create our own personalized experiences within the games? Again, probably not.
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Mods add so much to games. Far more than just “more to do.” Mods like Heart of the Dead, Midas magic and Lost Spires for Oblivion added amazing quests, new weapons and even new magic systems to the game. They added new worlds and fantastic new stories.
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But more than that, they convinced some of us to buy a game long since dead on other platforms. Because we could extend of playing time – and thus, profits for the devs and publishers – literally indefinitely using mods. There is no good reason at this juncture to not release a tool set along with the PC version of your game.

I’m cautiously optimistic about this, after being disappointed with Narodnaya Solyanka (longest load times since the days of compact cassette, buggy, crashy and grindingly hard). If it adds all that lovely new geography without making a death punished by a four minute wait, this is great news.

I remember yeeeeears ago, playing that leaked alpha code. I loved STALKER, but the fact that you couldn’t carry on sandboxing it after you’d finished it meant I never went back to it. I think they opened it up in a later patch, but it was too late then. Wiil definitely give S2 a go though.

I remember seeing a mod very long ago that added a super glitchy coop mode (do anything and the game will crash). A-Life is very complex and I’m guessing only GSC will be able to a real coop option, and they have been talking about it for S2.

Seems like quite the mod, lots has changed. Certainly seems closer to the Stalker that was initially promised (and sort of shown off in the earlier builds that came out) but with the added bonus of things like the Atmopshere mod being added.

I’ve been thinking about playing SoC again anyway, so might play with this one rather than the Paradise Lost mod or Complete.

I don’t know why we freaked out so much when GSC announced a possible closure, modders will keep releasing new STALKER games for years!

There is something I don’t get though, have they used actual content of the alpha for this mod or all the new levels shown in the trailer are made by them? If all that content was made by GSC they sure did leave a lot of content behind!

Quite a bit will be GSC content but modified and updated as while they did leave loads of code and bits of content behind in the retail release, not only were alphas leaked, but GSC have gone off and released a number of alpha and beta builds with content to the mod community to help them along.

It’s quite a nice gesture really and one of the reason why Stalker mods are quite expansive.

A lot of the levels weren’t really cut they were just re-worked into something different. The original levels seen in the alpha builds were generally a bit bigger and more open than those in the final release, although they were also a bit sparser and didn’t look as polished overall (no dynamic sun shadows either).

I always had one gripe with Lost Alpha, why detract from an excellent idea by going out of their way, using dated and poor features from the 2005 build. The weapon sounds are awful, the shooting seems awful and entirely lacking of the grittiness STALKER had that LURK intensified. I never understood how you could enjoy enemies eating 20 rounds from your recoil-less assault rifle over the carefully controlled shooting in which each shot is lethal or near-lethal.

Nice, between this and some the COP mods with new maps, it should be plenty of content to keep us busy even if Stalker 2 never sees the light of day…Q: Will we be able to kill crows?
A: Yes.
This is all I wanted to know.